First Gaian War
Mankind's first extra-solar colony has been the scene of two major conflicts - the first between the People's Republic of China and the Western European Union, the second between the Russian Federation and an alliance of the UOE and UC. The First War was over territorial claims, the second, twenty years later, was over accusations of the development of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Causes of the War When the first colonists began arriving on Gaia in 2118 all five nations involved agreed that the planets northern continent, Atlantis, would be left unclaimed. It was envisaged that the territory would be eventually granted to one or more other nations not involved in the Gaia Project. Throughout the 2120's and 30's the Peoples Republic of China carried out a series of large scale expeditions to Atlantis, including the establishment of a number of permanent base stations which soon grew in size to small towns surrounded by farms. In 2135 the PRC began mining for niobium in the Heisenberg Mountains, in direct violation of the terms of the colonisation programme. By this point the population of Atlantis has passed eighteen thousand, with several of the "camps" now connected by paved roads. In November 2135 the WEU and UC both announced that the PRC was making deliberate attempts to colonise Atlantis. In response the PRC shut down its embassies in the WEU and UC colonies and began encrypting the signals from its GPS constellation, which both the WEU and UC were dependent upon until their own constellations were finished. Fighting on Gaia Fighting on Ciamverde The fighting on Ciamverde was far more fluid than that on Gaia. Neither side had spent many resources on developing militia units despite the fact that the two colonies shared a long, porous border. In the early stages of the war the Chinese sent in lightly armed units in modified civilian vehicles and these forces were able to inflict considerable damage on the thinly scattered communities with reach of the crossing points. After a time however the Chinese began running out of both fuel and spare parts for their vehicles, all available resources were been sent to Gaia forcing the Chinese commanders to attempt to improvise and salvage what they could, something they were unprepared for. In response to the Chinese incursions the WEU forces formed roving bands of troops mounted on horses Fighting Elsewhere Although the bulk of the worlds attention was focused on Gaia and Ciamverde, fighting also broke out on other worlds where both parties possessed territory, including briefly Earth itself. Earth Very little direct fighting took place on Earth. The two belligerents were located at opposite ends of a large continental mass and neither side was willing to use its inter-continental weapons systems. It was only on the Pacific Ocean that fighting occured when the PLAN began targetting WEU merchant vessels. To counter this the WEU deployed a task force centred on the fleet carrier Europa and including a number of nuclear and Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) submarines. Within a six week period the PLAN lost three submarines (one nuclear and two AIP) and four destroyers to the WEU fleet forcing them to withdraw. Merchant protection was eventually handed over to a UN led monitoring fleet which included units from the USN and Commonwealth Navy Europa The Jovian moon of Europa had been the site of numerous scientific outposts before the war and several of these were turned into garrisons by both parties during the fighting. During the first week of the war a Chinese commando team attacked the largest WEU facility, Galileo Station, destroying it's atmospheric integrity and killing one hundred and seven of the one hundred and fifty two inhabitants. In retaliation the WEU used armed shuttles to attack the three Chinese sites killing all of the personel deployed on Europa. For the rest of the war neither side deployed troops to the moon and afterwards the WEU abandoned Europa focusing instead on extra-solar colonisation. The CEGD eventually returned to Europa in 2318, establishing a small permanent base on the Southern Glacier Fields. The Sol System Neither side had any large warships in the Sol System, only fighters, armed shuttles, and converted merchant ships. Despite this a number of deep space clashes did take place, especially close to the systems jump shelf where ships from both side would often ambush their counterparts. Following the accidental destruction of a Russian ship by a Chinese warship both sides withdrew from deep space to prevent further incidents. Aftermath After their defeat the Chinese government was forced to concede all of its colonies and territories on Ciamverde, Luna, and Mars. The Martian territories were eventually taken over by the Free Cities of Mars whilst the Luna outposts were left to decay and have since been scrapped. The colonists on Ciamverde, numbering some half a million, were given thirty days to begin evacuation with the final colonist expected to be gone within a year. Such a migration stretched the already overburdened Chinese transport fleet and a number of "short cuts" were ordered by the government to ensure that compliance was met. Many ships were packed with as many cryo-tubes as it was possible to squeeze in, many of which were already poorly maintained. Safety protocols and reanimation procedures were compromised on countless occassions and the death toll was high. During the period before the war cold sleep had, on average, a 6.2% fatality rate (a figure which has now dropped to just 0.49%). Because of the pressures involved the ships carrying refugees from Ciamverde to Gaia and Earth suffered a mortality rate of close to 17%. It has been estimated that a third of all of the families evacuated from Cimaverde lost at least one relative, and everyone know someone who had died on the journey away from their former world. The death toll amongst the families of the ruling elite and military high command was much lower, with many making the journey to Gaia awake rather than in cryo-stasis. These losses, combined with a growing resentment towards the government, sowed the seeds for the civil disturbances which eventually led to the Chinese Civil War and the rise of the Celestial Empire. Category:Wars and Conflicts Category:Gaia